Space Mountain Closed: Popular Disneyland Rides Shut Down Due to Citations

Space Mountain is closed along with two other rides in Disneyland. The famous roller coaster and two other popular rides were shut down temporarily over the weekend as Disney took the time to review its employee safety protocols following citations from state regulators.

Disney received violations from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health on Friday, Disneyland Resorts spokeswoman Suzi Brown said, according to the Washington Post.

Space Mountain, the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Soarin' Over California were closed over the weekend out of an abundance of caution."We constantly strive to maintain a safe work environment for our cast members and contractors - and we are reviewing certain protocols," Brown said, according to the Post.

The citations for the rides were due to an incident that occurred in November. During this incident, a contract worker was inured while performing maintenance on the exterior of the Space Mountain ride.

Since the incident, Disneyland failed to completely correct "known fall hazards" that were found on the exterior of the attraction, the citations says on the Cal/OSHA website.

"Furthermore, Disneyland Resort failed to have approved anchorages or approved tie-backs for contract employees to attach to when performing scheduled exterior building maintenance," the description reads.

Disneyland currently faces more than $200,000 in fines related to employee safety. The Anaheim park may have to pay $234,850 in penalties due to six citations.

Disneyland has until April 22 to fix the problems which include unsafe ladders used to reach exterior platforms on Space Mountain and to install guard rails and fall protection for employees who have to scale the ride to perform maintenance.

The Matterhorn ride reopened on Sunday but it is not clear how long the other rides will be out of service.

Space Mountain and the Matterhorn Bobsleds are both located at Disneyland while Soarin' Over California is at the newer Disney California Adventure park.